I recently purchased another gorgeous hellebore from Farmyard Nurseries in Llandysul, where there is a significant breeding programme – this one has no name on it, but I’m sure you’ll agree that it is stunning

Having read Carol Klein’s article in February’s Gardener’s World magazine, I thought I’d attempt to cross pollinate this hellebore with another that I got at Farmyard Nurseries last year – it is thriving in a spot by the pond and again it is a beautiful specimen

So, I used a biro (rubbed on a sleeve to produce static) to take pollen from the darker flowered specimen and stroked it inside a closed bud on the light one – three days consecutively as per Carol’s instruction, then popped some string on the stem of the bud to identify it. This plant is still in it’s pot, so I have moved it far away from the other hellebores in the garden – not sure whether this is necessary or not, but it seems logical and I hadn’t got a small enough paper bag to cover it. Now I’ve just got to wait to gather seeds in a few months time – fingers crossed!